Newham Network: technology to benefit the community
Posted by Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham, at 14:58, Thu 18 January 2007:
I used to work for a computer company and I have always been a fan of using technology to improve public services. Newham has some great examples.
I popped in to see one recently: the award winning Newham Network. It has its roots in a pendant-based community alarm service which began when I was a member of the Council in June 1989. The idea was that people with care needs were provided with a pendant they could wear round their neck, and if they had problems – for example if they fell – they could summon help by pressing a button on the pendant. The Council’s control centre at Holden Point in Stratford was staffed 24 hours a day to provide a response.
Within one year of opening, 1,500 residents in Newham were using the service for a charge of 99 pence per week. The service has been expanded into other boroughs too. The extra income has helped keep service charges low: the current charge is £2.00 per week. Now there are a total of 5,700 clients, including 3,000 in Newham.
Newham Network now also runs the NeAT programme. This stands for ‘Newham Advanced Telecare’ and is an alliance of the Council, Newham Homes, the NHS, the Emergency Services and the voluntary services. It has an amazing array of gadgets to support more vulnerable people – including some who would otherwise have to be looked after in a care home – with sensors in their homes connected to the Control Centre.
The sensors detect things like smoke, fire, flood, gas and carbon monoxide. They can also pick up automatically if someone has fallen over – or even, through a sensor under the pillow, pick up that someone is having an epileptic fit during the night. Triggering any of these sensors results in a quick response from the Control Centre, or alerts someone else living in the house.
There are now nearly 400 NeAT installations in Newham. Users and carers say it gives peace of mind to know help is always at hand. There’s a greater feeling of dignity and privacy too as there’s no longer a need for people to keep checking up on you. And there are a growing number of cases where a NeAT sensor has averted a disaster: a flood in a tower block, an unnoticed fire in a kitchen and a person who had fallen and might otherwise not have got help for hours.
The Council is providing funding for NeAT to expand to 4000 households by March 2008. The service will be free to anyone already receiving care from the Council, or over 75. It will put Newham at the forefront of beneficial use of technology in the UK. NeAT has other ideas for further development too.
With technology developing by leaps and bounds, it’s great to see it being put to such good use.
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